Consumer attitudes to savings survey

Read the survey

Download the Understanding consumer attitudes to saving survey PDF (2.68MB)

Understanding your needs

Our aim at Aviva is to bring prosperity and peace of mind to our customers – through good times and bad. To be able to help them plan for their futures, we need to have a deep understanding of how our customers think and feel about financial matters. With 44.5 million customers in 28 countries, that's no small task! Nevertheless, it's knowledge that we're absolutely committed to getting. And, once we have this knowledge, we plan to use it to lobby and influence the policy makers so that we can get answers to the issues raised by our customers.

Our survey of Consumer Attitudes to Saving

One of the methods we employ to make sure we understand our customers is regularly ask consumers about their attitudes to savings,investment and retirement. In 2009 Aviva published a report Understanding consumer attitudes to saving PDF (2.68MB) providing our latest industry-leading research into our customers' views of their financial futures. The research covers topics such as risk, savings, retirement, financial advice and much, much more.

Of course, there are many areas where customers think differently because of cultural, economic and geographical differences. But there are also plenty of areas where customers around the world share very similar attitudes – things like saving enough for retirement, worries about financial security and aversion to higher levels of risk.

About the Aviva Consumer Attitudes to Savings survey

Aviva's "Consumer Attitudes to Savings" (CAS) survey has been conducted annually since 2004. Since 2004, we have surveyed more than 170,000 people from 26 countries annually. The Aviva survey assesses and tracks consumer attitudes to savings and provides a high-level assessment of the consumer issues in each country.

Aviva's 2010 CAS survey covers 10 of its core markets in Europe (UK, France, Italy, Spain, Poland and Ireland), America and Asia (China, India, Singapore). It is a nationally representative survey of adults age 18 and over. In each market, 1,000 respondents were interviewed, with the exception of China, where 2,000 adults were surveyed (total sample size 11,000). The survey was conducted online in all markets except those in Asia, where a mix of online and face-to-face methods was used.

Detailed findings from our 2010/11 survey

Below are the findings from our recent survey which focus on some key areas.

Consumer confidence

The world economy is still fragile and while there are some signs of growth returning, our latest Consumer Attitudes to Savings (CAS) research findings from February 2011 shows that that consumer confidence is yet to return in many markets. There were significant falls in consumers feeling confident in the financial position of their household in the next 12 months - the UK, Ireland, France and Poland come out the most negative and there is a clear distinction between Asia and the Western markets, reflecting the impact of different recent experiences on future outlook.

30% of consumers in the study expected the financial position of their household will get better over the next 12 months

Future intentions/Risk and return

Continued uncertainty and mistrust are however also instilling in consumers the recognition that they need to do more for themselves, and take on greater personal responsibility for their financial futures. Our CAS research agency's own work supports this theme by concluding that consumers are becoming much more cautious and less "frivolous" with their finances - moving into a new "era of consequences" - with around a third of people intending on putting more money into savings or investments over the next year; however, only 30% of consumers are willing to accept a higher level of risk in return for higher rewards.

32% of consumers stated that they are likely to put more money in to their investments in the next 12 months

30% of consumers agreed with the statement "I am prepared to accept a higher level of risk for some of my savings/investments in return for a higher possible return"

Desire for access to money

In 2008, more than half of those surveyed (55%) said they preferred to feel that their money was easily accessible rather than committing it for the long term. This figure has remained stable with 54% of those surveyed in February 2011 holding this view.

There are some significant market variations with India having a higher than average propensity to desire access to money, about two thirds (67%) were of this view in February 2011.

55% of those surveyed had a desire to easily access their money rather than committing it for the long term.

Coping with the unexpected

Globally, 27% of people felt they had enough savings to cope with the unexpected. This was particularly true in India where 51% of consumers were of this view.

In contrast, just 19% of consumers in China felt that they could cope with the unexpected. Consumers in Poland also showed some variation from the European counterparts with just 18% agreeing that they had enough savings/investments to cope with the unexpected.

27% of those surveyed agreed that they have enough savings/investments to cope with the unexpected.

Expectations of retirement

When it comes to reasons for saving, retirement comes out as the second highest globally (though there are some significant differences by market), which is not surprising given the 58% of people globally are worried that they won’t have enough when they retire for an adequate standard of living.

“The pre-retired generation are anxious about their current situation. In fact across ten of our major markets six in ten consumers are worried they won’t have enough money when they retire to provide an adequate standard of living.

The bar they have set is high – 61% say that they will need at least 75% of their current earnings to have a comfortable retirement – but many are relying on the State pension and other assets to provide the level of income they need to turn this retirement dream into reality.”

What is of equal concern is the fact that nearly one in three (29%) of all pre-retired adults have either not considered or don’t know what income they will need to have a comfortable retirement.

Aviva’s analysis also reveals:

Unrealistic expectations in the years before retirement...

Despite high expectations of a long and comfortable retirement and a higher than average level of interest in financial information, 25% of the pre-retired (over 55s) group are cutting the amount of money they save, or have stopped saving altogether.

39% believe they need all of their monthly income prior to retirement to be comfortable
55% say they are worried they won’t have enough to retire on, a concerning number given their close proximity to retirement.
25% state that they don’t understand about pensions, despite being over 55 and pre-retired.
37% state that they have a pension

....and a prevailing lack of interest and denial within the younger generation

Aviva’s research also discovered that, while the struggles of the older generation have impacted the awareness of the 18-34 year olds, they don’t yet appear to be acting on this information or making use of resources that can help them to start saving for their own retirement:

57% say they are worried they won’t have enough money to retire on.
40% admit that they don’t understand pensions
16% state that they have a pension

CAS has also explored attitudes to both retirement age as well as desired income in retirement and there are some stark differences between desired retirement age (dark blue line) and the age at which people think they can afford to retire (the light blue line). And it is interesting that the difference between Asia and the rest of the world comes through again in relation to retirement.

Data highlight: The average age at which consumers state they want to retire is 58 globally, whilst the age at which they think they will actually have to retire in order to have a comfortable standard of living in retirement is 62.

Academic responses to our report

In order to help Aviva gauge reactions to this five year body of work, we commissioned Professor Christopher O'Brien and Professor Ilian Mihov and Dr Krastev to further explore consumers' perceptions to saving and in particular their appetite to risk taking.

The essays, entitled 'The Role of Risk in Society' and 'Is it Tomorrow, Yet? Anxiety and Saving in a Risk Society' consider the key findings from the Understanding Consumer Attitudes to Saving 2004-2008 Report in the context of wider, societal trends.

These essays represent the views of third parties and Aviva is not responsible for the content.

About the essay authors

Professor Christopher O'Brien

Professor Christopher O'Brien is a Director of Risk and Insurance Studies at the Nottingham University Business School. His research interests include accounting standards and practices in insurance and pensions; actuarial methods and the management of insurance organisations; performance measurement and distribution of surplus in insurance companies; regulation of and risk management in insurance companies; genetics and insurance; annuities and mortality risk. Professor O'Brien is a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries; an Associate of the Society of Actuaries and a Member of Chartered Insurance Institute.

Professor Ilian Mihov

Ilian Mihov is a professor of Economics and the Novartis Chaired Professor of Management and Environment at INSEAD, one of the world's leading and largest graduate business schools, in France and Singapore. His research areas include macroeconomics, monetary economics, econometrics, and international economics. Professor Mihov is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Economic Policy Research. He is also a Research Professor at the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin).

Dr Ivan Krastev

Dr Ivan Krastev is a political scientist and Chair of Board of the Centre for Liberal Strategies in Sofia, Bulgaria. Since 2004, Dr Krastev has been the executive director of the International Commission on the Balkans, which is chaired by Italian Interior Minister Giuliano Amato. In 2006, he was awarded membership in the Forum of Young Global Leaders, a partner organization of the World Economic Forum.

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